This week showed how busi­nesses are at­tempt­ing to re­shape high­er edu­ca­tion for a work­force that des­per­ately needs ad­vanced de­grees.

To keep up with chan­ging in­dus­tries and chan­ging tech­no­lo­gies, the Amer­ic­an work­force needs job train­ing and fur­ther edu­ca­tion in or­der to com­pete. But edu­ca­tion is ex­pens­ive, and tra­di­tion­al de­grees on a phys­ic­al cam­pus are just not real­ist­ic or prac­tic­al for many full-time work­ers.

To com­bat this prob­lem in the tech field, on­line edu­ca­tion pro­vider Uda­city partnered with AT&T to cre­ate a new kind of col­lege de­gree that takes less time and less money than a mas­ter’s de­gree. It’s called a “nan­o­de­gree.”

The nan­o­de­gree is de­signed for people who work in soft­ware de­vel­op­ment. Without hav­ing to take time off, stu­dents can earn these cer­ti­fic­ates in front- and back-end Web de­vel­op­ment, iOS and An­droid mo­bile de­vel­op­ment, and data ana­lys­is. The nan­o­de­gree is de­signed to be stack­able, earn­ing you more as your ca­reer pro­gresses, com­ple­ment­ing whatever de­gree you’ve already earned. In­dus­tries, es­pe­cially di­git­al ones, change sig­ni­fic­antly year by year. A mas­ter’s de­gree earned in 2009 might be ir­rel­ev­ant by 2014.

Uda­city will start of­fer­ing the courses, which will cost around $200 per month, in the fall. The pro­grams will take between six and 12 months to com­plete.

Not only did AT&T make an ini­tial $1.5 mil­lion in­vest­ment in the pro­gram, the com­pany will also of­fer 100 in­tern­ships to nan­o­de­gree gradu­ates. Ad­di­tion­ally, AT&T is en­cour­aging its em­ploy­ees to par­ti­cip­ate in the pro­grams.

But the obstacles of job train­ing, time com­mit­ments, and costs are also rel­ev­ant for people in low-wage po­s­i­tions. Many of these work­ers do not have enough money for ad­vanced de­grees, nor do they have time to take classes, be­cause many have second jobs.

For its part, Star­bucks over the week­end an­nounced it would cov­er half the cost of a four-year on­line de­gree through Ari­zona State Uni­versity for its em­ploy­ees, us­ing fin­an­cial as­sist­ance and tu­ition re­im­burse­ments. Star­bucks em­ploy­ees must work in com­pany-owned stores and log 20 hours per week to take ad­vant­age of these be­ne­fits. The com­pany does not re­quire em­ploy­ees to stay with Star­bucks after they gradu­ate.

Of Star­bucks’ 135,000 em­ploy­ees, the uni­versity pre­dicts that between 15,000 and 20,000 will en­roll. There are some down­sides to the pro­gram, however, in­clud­ing oth­er up­front costs and the lim­ited nature of on­line edu­ca­tion.

But if the mod­el proves suc­cess­ful, oth­er low-wage em­ploy­ers could fol­low it. Right now, Wal-Mart Stores has a part­ner­ship with a for-profit uni­versity, but the res­ults have not been widely suc­cess­ful.

However, it’s not as if all com­pan­ies are sud­denly go­ing to start provid­ing edu­ca­tion be­ne­fits for their em­ploy­ees. Per The Wall Street Journ­al:

Many oth­er em­ploy­ers have cut back on edu­ca­tion as­sist­ance. A 2014 sur­vey con­duc­ted by the So­ci­ety for Hu­man Re­sources Man­age­ment found that 54% of em­ploy­ers offered un­der­gradu­ate edu­ca­tion­al as­sist­ance, down from 62% in 2010.

But it is wise for busi­nesses to start look­ing to do something. These col­lab­or­a­tions between the private sec­tor and edu­ca­tion pro­viders also help em­ploy­ers. For AT&T, the com­pany gets a more edu­cated work­force. For Star­bucks, it stands to re­tain em­ploy­ees longer, sav­ing money on job train­ing that it would have spent on new em­ploy­ees.

And this is just the start. Uda­city prom­ises fur­ther pro­grams with cor­por­ate part­ners. And more com­pan­ies are likely to get in the game of chan­ging the face of high­er edu­ca­tion.

"President Trump signed a sweeping spending bill Friday afternoon, averting another partial government shutdown. The action came after Trump had declared a national emergency in a move designed to circumvent Congress and build additional barriers at the southern border, where he said the United States faces 'an invasion of our country.'"

Source:

REDIRECTS $8 BILLION

Trump Declares National Emergency

6 days ago

THE DETAILS

"President Donald Trump on Friday declared a state of emergency on the southern border and immediately direct $8 billion to construct or repair as many as 234 miles of a border barrier. The move — which is sure to invite vigorous legal challenges from activists and government officials — comes after Trump failed to get the $5.7 billion he was seeking from lawmakers. Instead, Trump agreed to sign a deal that included just $1.375 for border security."

Source:

COULD SOW DIVISION AMONG REPUBLICANS

House Will Condemn Emergency Declaration

1 weeks ago

THE DETAILS

"House Democrats are gearing up to pass a joint resolution disapproving of President Trump’s emergency declaration to build his U.S.-Mexico border wall, a move that will force Senate Republicans to vote on a contentious issue that divides their party. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Thursday evening in an interview with The Washington Post that the House would take up the resolution in the coming days or weeks. The measure is expected to easily clear the Democratic-led House, and because it would be privileged, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would be forced to put the resolution to a vote that he could lose."

Source:

MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, DRUG FORFEITURE FUND

Where Will the Emergency Money Come From?

1 weeks ago

THE DETAILS

"ABC News has learned the president plans to announce on Friday his intention to spend about $8 billion on the border wall with a mix of spending from Congressional appropriations approved Thursday night, executive action and an emergency declaration. A senior White House official familiar with the plan told ABC News that $1.375 billion would come from the spending bill Congress passed Thursday; $600 million would come from the Treasury Department's drug forfeiture fund; $2.5 billion would come from the Pentagon's drug interdiction program; and through an emergency declaration: $3.5 billion from the Pentagon's military construction budget."

Source:

TRUMP SAYS HE WILL SIGN

House Passes Funding Deal

1 weeks ago

THE DETAILS

"The House passed a massive border and budget bill that would avert a shutdown and keep the government funded through the end of September. The Senate passed the measure earlier Thursday. The bill provides $1.375 billion for fences, far short of the $5.7 billion President Trump had demanded to fund steel walls. But the president says he will sign the legislation, and instead seek to fund his border wall by declaring a national emergency."